The two accountants of the Judicial Ser­vice who have been accused of stealing GH¢190,486.02 belonging to the service were Thursday granted bail in the sum of GH¢340,OOO with four sureties each to be justified. Joseph K. Mbeah, the former Eastern Regional Accountant of the service, was granted bail in the sum of GH¢190,OOO, while Fuseini Matula Alaru, the incumbent regional accountant, was granted bail in the sum of GH¢ 150,000. Mbeah is facing· one count of stealing GH¢92,260.68, while Alaru is facing a charge of stealing GH¢98,225.42. Their pleas were not taken and the court, presided over by Mr D.E.K. Daketsey, upheld bail applications made by their counsel. They are to appear again on June 25, 2009. Police Inspector Stephen Baidoo, the pros­ecutor, did not oppose the bail application because, according to him, investigations were still ongoing. According to the facts of the case, the Director of Audit of the Judicial Service ordered investigations into the books of the accused persons following recent reports of financial malpractice in the service. When the order was carried out, the amounts could not be accounted for by the accused persons between January and April this year. The audit covered the period January 2006 to December 2008 and it was detected that the accused persons could not account for the amounts in question. Source: Daily Graphic